I have only designed 1 course from scratch so I don't know how much help this is, but you took time to play my course and review so I figured I'd throw in my 2 cents as well. Also, I suck at this game, relatively speaking, so keep that in mind too.
#1: Drove straight at big pine with a little draw, should have aimed even further right for approach into green....went right at it with PW and wind held me up to front bunker. Putted through break so couldn't get up and down but green seemed fair - BOGEY. Liked the view of drive as well as hazards, routing, etc encouraging golfer to play the hole more conservative.
#2: Like the way you planted leading up to the elevated green here, but bunker shape is odd to my eye for whatever reason, I'd say mostly the fatter upper right portion. To each his own. Again had a slight 5 MPH wind, and had some frame rate chug here as well on the tee shot. Stuck 6 iron pin high but middle, so had to put back up the hill. 2 put from 26 feet for PAR- Enjoyed the feel and challenge of this hole, not sure why I had the frame issue. If think the green is well measured and if I had taken a more aggressive line would have had a much easier look at birdie.
#3: As promised, I suck- 30 yd slice over trees about 270 left me 190 to pin in heavy rough- tried to knock back to fairway and landed just short in heavy stuff by pine. Caught a flyer from there hitting a PW in between distances and flew the green. Tried to get cute with a chip, caught in heavy rough by green then chipped it to 1 foot and tapped in for DOUBLE. Ouch, feel like that should have been an easy par and missed opportunity birdie type hole.
#4: Nothing too intimidating here, I like the idea of curving the approach back around the trees as opposed to the dogleg left off the box- fun routing. Over-corrected tee shot and pulled a slight draw into rough. Had no choice in heavy rough but to hit a punch draw, left me a completely blind approach over the trees. Tried to hit a high lofted 5 iron, caught the top of the trees into the bunker. Played bunker shot short and left par putt short - BOGEY. Great par 5 in my opinion, nothing too fancy or complicated, just a solid route to an elevated green. Would be a beat with any type of headwind (I only had 3 MPH this hole)
#5: Another interestingly routed hole, I'm a fan of the sharp dogleg myself and like the execution here. Hit a cut 3 wood off the tee but faded a bit too far and actually caught a lip on right side of fairway sending me straight across to left side. Stayed in short stuff though and had a 96 yd shot below my feet to a green 36 feet below me - misjudged the distance and left it 3 yds short of green. Almost chipped in from 20ish yds but ran it by the hole because i didnt bother to check the slope on the backside. Got up and down from there - BOGEY. Really like this hole, but I'm wondering if you shouldn't tame that red slop behind the flag just a bit considering its already a decent guessing game between the elevation drop and the wind.
#6: Well if you wanted to know how your course played NOT from the fairways, this review is for you - hjt a big hook into water off drive, overcompensated with second tee shot and hit a fade into heavy rough. From 126 out I actually had a dead straight look at the pin, bunkers not in play, but how to get the ball up that slope from the rough and pick right club was the issue - hit a PW with a little extra juice and I was dancing. Just missed a 19 footer by half a foot - played it 5-6 cups outside left and it was deceptively slow up the hill - DOUBLE. Again, I really like the sharp dogleg and had fun playing this hole despite the tee shot mishap.
#7: Here we go again - draw + wind on this hole equals the drink off the box again for me. Re-tee and drove it just to the far left edge of fairway bunker on the hill. Trouble everywhere, side hill lie in rough, I hit a 5 iron and avoided everything but went through fairway into heavy stuff again...another DOUBLE after 2 putt. Punishing, tough hole here. I don't mind the challenge, but man there is not a lot of safe real estate to be found on the fairway at any point in the hole.
#8: Another sharp dogleg right, I hit too big of a fade with my stick after altering the shot too and ended up in heavy rough on right side. Trees caught me on approach , hit a flop shot that caught the wrong slope and ended up 32 feet from pin. Had a 8-9 cup breaker and played it just a bit too hard up the hill, 8 feet past. Burned the edge coming back, tapped in 4 footer for another DOUBLE. Another fun hole where better golfers would most likely never score less than par, I think I enjoyed the lighting and shadows around the green the most. Another big breaking putt from distance as well, but nothing too extreme or unrealistic.
#9: Cool par 3 coming back down the hill towards the (wedding?) gazebo...I had a 9 MPH crosswind slightly into me so I only clubbed down 1 despite the drastic elevation change. Hit exactly the shot I wanted and ended up 18 feet just on fringe on right side. Lipped out putt (too hard) and of course it swings towards the slope and pushes me down back to middle of green 21 feet away....this story has a somewhat happy ending though as I swung in a 3-4 cup bender for PAR. Fun par 3 to play, not overly deceptive or unfair but a fair challenge.
Overall I thought it was an enjoyable 9, just wish I could have provided better feedback on the course from the fairways...still working on my driving accuracy on the harder settings. I thought the greens presented mostly fair challenges although maybe a tweak here or there wouldn't be a terrible idea. Not having a bit more safety on #7 would be my biggest annoyance through the front, but gotta have some tough tough holes in there somewhere I suppose. In terms of beautification, I didn't think anything looked terribly out of place and only had the 1 frame rate issue on the first par 3. Bottom line, I like the execution on most of the holes from the standpoint of the concept for each, and appreciate and enjoy courses that do what I believe this 9 is geared towards, which is like you have said, to provide challenges without overuse of hazards or excessive distances.
It is supposed to be a thinking man's game after all.
Cheers, hope something in here from my +11 is helpful. Haha.